Crossfire
by deanwimpchester
Summary: Matt and Mello discuss things before the kidnapping. Harmless MxM


**Special thanks to my lovely beta-reader, The Lost and Found Box.**

Mello was thinking.

About what, Matt had little to no idea. All Matt knew was that Mello was thinking.

Mello took a bite out of his chocolate bar, staring off into space with narrowed eyes.

Matt knew enough to be quiet when Mello was this deep in thought, so he kept half of his attention on his videogame and half his attention on his friend.

Then, out of the blue, Mello said, "I think Takada has some of the Death Note."

The gamer flicked his head up to look at Mello.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

Mello took a deep breath. "Common sense. You think those bodyguards are the only things protecting her?"

"Common sense my ass. It seems a little far-fetched. And when I say a little far-fetched, I really mean a goddamn gigantic amount far-fetched," Matt said, placing the video game controller on the ground.

Mello rolled his eyes. "She's Kira's spokesperson, that in itself should make it possible." He took another bite of chocolate. "And if we're gonna go with the theory that the new L is Kira, then Light Yagami is Kira."

Matt raised his eyebrow, but Mello took no note of it and continued. "According to Near, some people doubt Light Yagami and are keeping an eye on him. We both already know that Misa Amane could have been the second Kira, but is definitely not anymore, and Halle told me that Amane and Light Yagami are that in mind, it makes sense that Light Yagami and Amane were the Kiras. But he's also with Takada, and he can't exactly move freely at the moment, saying that it's probable that people are keeping an eye on him."

Matt blinked. Looking at it like this, it did make sense. "Yeah, I suppose. I'm pretty sure that if your theory is right, Takada just has some pieces of notebook paper and not the real notebook. If someone had the shinigami eyes, they could easily tell that she had a notebook."

"That's what I figured." Mello sighed. "I don't think that Light Yagami is doing any of the killings right now. Look at where he is. If he was still acting as Kira, Demegawa wouldn't have been killed. I'm fairly certain that this whole 'building of Kira's Kingdom' was not an idea that Kira came up with, Demegawa probably just came up with that because he wasn't getting any instructions from Kira. And, if he was acting as Kira at this point, it'd be suicide. So I think that he has other people acting as Kira for him."

"Did you just make a mistake, or did I just hear you say people?"

Mello took a bite out of his chocolate bar (again). "I said people. The messages Kira has sent to Takada are slightly different from before, and think: Yagami couldn't be giving her instructions when he's being monitored like that."

"So, what are we gonna do?" Matt asked.

"I'd imagine Takada has the paper on her. How about this: we kidnap Takada. I kidnap Takada," he added after Matt gave him a look. "So, I make her take off all her clothes and tracking devices, then send them here so you can look through them and see if there are any notes on her. If she is somehow connected to Yagami, then she knows my name. If I die, then she has some paper on her that she hid from me."

"You might die?"

"Yes."

"Are you insane?"

"I've often wondered that myself." Mello said dryly.

"How sure of this are you, exactly?"

Mello shrugged, then murmured, "About 30% sure."

"And by 30%," Matt spat. "You mean….?"

"More like 70%" Mello murmured.

Matt leaned back, rubbing his forehead with the heels of his palm. "You're 70% sure that Takada has some bit of Death note on her person, and you intend on putting her in a situation where she'd have to write your name down and kill you?"

Another bite of chocolate. "I'm not positive that Light Yagami told her my name."

"But if she has some death note and is connected to Yagami, it would be improbable that he didn't tell her your name," Matt pointed out, finding it harder to keep a bitter tone from crawling into his voice.

Mello blinked. "Yeah, I suppose."

There was a long silence.

Trying to entertain himself, Matt lit a cigarette.

Silence.

He took a drag.

Silence.

Mello had to be crazy to risk his life by practically inviting her to kill him. What would Matt do if Mello died? If he helped Mello, he could be caught and killed, by Kira or by Kira worshippers he didn't know. Even if he wasn't killed, he'd be arrested. And Matt would not be spending the rest of his life in jail.

"Huh," Mello said indifferently. "I just realized that we don't know each other's names."

"Hmm," Matt murmured. It didn't really matter to him if he knew Mello's name or not. He was sure that Mello would never let anyone know his name anyway, so he wasn't offended in the least when Mello didn't say. Mello was a secretive person and Matt was perfectly fine with that.

"Yeah," Mello said slowly.

Mello would never surrender his name. That was a fact. But then why did he have butterflies in his stomach, as if he was waiting for something?

There was another silence.

Mello was staring off into space, slightly frowning.

Matt stared at the pattern the smoke from his cigarette was making.

The silence seemed to stretch out for hours.

Finally, Mello pushed himself out of his chair and shouted, "Dammit, Matt! Why are you making me feel so guilty for this? I'm putting my life on the line for the sake of the Kira case, which is just what L did!"

Matt looked up at Mello. "Because you could get killed by Kira, just like L. I don't want that to happen. What would happen to all of us if your plan failed?"

The two men sat glaring at each other for seconds.

Mello sighed. "If Takada does have some notebook paper that would be a great discovery. What if Near didn't think about that? If he knew, then that could be a great piece of the puzzle that I would know and he wouldn't. What if he gets killed because of that? I can't let that happen, even if I hate him. For once, I have to be mature and think about the big picture. If I can help Near find out something important to solve the case, then I would have succeeded in capturing Kira."

"So? Nothing great would happen if we died," Matt said quietly. Then, almost in a whisper, he murmured, "I don't want to die."

Mello's angry eyes softened and he stared at Matt for a long time. "I don't want you to die either. If all goes well with my plan, you won't die. My life doesn't matter, but yours does." He grabbed on a piece of Matt's hair and twirled it with his fingers. "You're too special."

"And you're not?" Matt hissed, angry because he was choking up. Mello released Matt's hair and trailed his finger down Matt's arm.

There was another silence, and Mello shook his head, his eyes on Matt's hand. "I'm really not. No matter what happens to me now, I'm a criminal. No matter what happens to me, nothing matters. I've already screwed my life up. You still have the chance to do something. I'm not going to take that away."

"But I don't want you to die," Matt whispered. Mello looked up.

Mello closed his eyes with a calm expression on his face. "I might have to."

"God, just-" Matt started, cutting himself off to lean forward and kiss Mello.

Mello responded by grabbing Matt's hand and returning the kiss.


End file.
